Directing a voice-over

There’s a craft in directing a voice-over, the one to avoid at all costs is where the producer/copywriter reads the script the way they think it should be read, in that situation I think it best that the voice-over and producer swap places straight away.

I have witnessed some classic bits of direction over the years, one was where a voice-over was asked to “put a bit of top spin” on the next take….new balls please!

Another was “that was great, but could you do one more take, and this time be a bit more seductive on the word bank”…..yeah, look where that got us?

Now, call me old fashioned but I think that if you have a well crafted script and have given some thought to the casting of your voice-over, you won’t need to direct at all… at all.

By | 2016-01-27T23:06:05+00:00 March 22nd, 2012|Blog, Voice Over QA|0 Comments

What is Received Pronunciation or RP in a voice-over?

Received Pronunciation or RP as it is referred to, is often required in the world of voice-overs. I once heard a producer say to a voice-over “The client doesn’t want you to sound like you are from anywhere”

John Wells identified perfect RP as that spoken by for instance…the British royal family, the actor Rupert Everett, David Attenborough, to name but a few.

Here in Ireland we speak Hiberno-English and I suppose we have our own take on Irish RP, James Joyce thought that the best English of all ,was that spoken in a Drumcondra accent. (He would turn in his grave if he heard the dulcet tones of a certain retired politician from that area speak today, or any day for that matter)

I was listening to a couple of Irish radio commercials from the 70′s & 80′s, and was amused by how English sounding the accents were. These days, we have all relaxed in trying to sound so posh, but for what it’s worth my vote goes to a Goatstown accent.

By | 2018-03-14T10:43:30+00:00 March 5th, 2012|Blog, Voice Over QA|0 Comments